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¹“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does?

²Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth,

³when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young?

⁴Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open; they go out and do not return to them.

⁵“Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

⁶to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city; he hears not the shouts of the driver.

⁸He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing.

⁹“Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger?

¹⁰Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor?

¹²Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love?

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground,

¹⁵forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them.

¹⁶She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers; though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,

¹⁷because God has made her forget wisdom and given her no share in understanding.

¹⁸When she rouses herself to flee, she laughs at the horse and his rider.

¹⁹“Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

²⁰Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrifying.

²¹He paws in the valley and exults in his strength; he goes out to meet the weapons.

²²He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword.

²³Upon him rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin.

²⁴With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south?

²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?

²⁸On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold.

²⁹From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.

³⁰His young ones suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is he.”

¹And the LORD said to Job:

²“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

³Then Job answered the LORD and said:

⁴“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

⁵I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”

⁶Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

⁷“Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.

⁸Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?

⁹Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

¹⁰“Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor.

¹¹Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.

¹²Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand.

¹³Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below.

¹⁴Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵“Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox.

¹⁶Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly.

¹⁷He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together.

¹⁸His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.

¹⁹“He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!

²⁰For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play.

²¹Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.

²²For his shade the lotus trees cover him; the willows of the brook surround him.

²³Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.

²⁴Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare?

¹“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?

²Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?

⁵Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

⁶Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

⁸Lay your hands on him; remember the battle — you will not do it again!

⁹Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him.

¹⁰No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?

¹¹Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

¹²“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.

¹³Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.

¹⁵His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal.

¹⁶One is so near to another that no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

¹⁸His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

¹⁹Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth.

²⁰Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

²¹His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth.

²²In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him.

²³The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable.

²⁴His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone.

²⁵When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves.

²⁶Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

²⁷He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow cannot make him flee; for him, sling stones are turned to stubble.

²⁹Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins.

³⁰His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

³¹He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired.

³³On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear.

³⁴He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.”

¹Then Job answered the LORD and said:

²“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

³‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

⁴‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’

⁵I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;

⁶therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

⁷After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

⁸Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job's prayer.

¹⁰And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

¹¹Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

¹²And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

¹³He had also seven sons and three daughters.

¹⁴And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch.

¹⁵And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

¹⁶And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations.

¹⁷And Job died, an old man, and full of days.